Avast Hang Up On Start Up

Avast Free Antivirus / Premium Security
1

I have been using Avast for several months on my computer and my wife’s. I am running XP Home edition. Several days ago when my wife started her computer the Avast blue ball shows up in the task bar with a small circle with a red slash through it. It hangs up until the computer is turned off and rebooted. Some times it does not do it the second boot up and some times it takes several tries. It did it for the first time on my computer this morning. Second boot up it did not do it.

Could someone please tell me what is happening?

Rick

2

-= There might be left traces of your previous antivirus… You may download a removal tool to completely remove thoe traces…

3

Have (or did) you another AV installed in this system, if so what was it and how did you get rid of it ?

This is one of the common reasons for the Red circle and bar.
Also see, AAVM subsystem detected and RPC error. http://www.avast.com/eng/faq-other-questions.html#idt_1539

4

I had Norton Internet Security on both and just did the “program removal” but did not use the Norton Removal Tool. Both computers have been running fine for 5 months. This problem just popped up a few days ago. Today my wife’s computer did not hang up and mine did for the first time.

5
  1. Remove NAV or Norton 360 through Add/Remove programs from Control Panel. Boot.
  2. Use Norton Removal Tool for Windows 2000/XP/Vista or Norton Removal Tool for Windows 98/Me. Boot.
  3. Install avast! (or repair the installation) and boot.

The Norton Removal Tool uninstalls all Norton 2008/2007/2006/2005/2004/2003 products and Norton 360 from your computer.

6

I would suggest also using their removal tool as Norton can be harder to get rid of that some viruses ;D

7

I thought it was perhaps just me experiencing problems for past 2 weeks, but I’ve been experiencing some issues with both my XP Pro computers hanging/freezing too during startup too. The issue does not happen every time I boot the computer. Both Dells have had Avast installed from new about 9 months ago. No previous antivirus sw installed.

The windows desktop would appear and icons would start appearing in the system tray as normal. But only the Avast icon (no red cross) and the Intel graphics icon would appear. No other icons I normally see would appear. I could not access Task manager nor the Start menu. The mouse pointer could be moved, but eventually it too would freeze. Lately, the laptop started to hang far more frequently on startup so decided I had to fix it once and for all.

Turning the laptop off and back on usually resolved the problem. The Event log was not very helpful.

This has happened many times on the laptop.

Then one morning, my Dell desktop experienced the same symptoms too and this was just too much of a coincidence. (It has only happened once and has not yet been repeated)

I’ve gone thru my laptop with a fine ‘tooth comb’ as they say to see what new applications I may have recently installed that may have contributed to this new problem. A few weeks earlier, I had upgraded both computers to IE8, installed OfficeXP, Windows Live Messenger and Mail 2009 and netframework up to v3.5. Used Hijackthis to assess what was running on my laptop etc.

Scanned it for viruses and malware. Performed many restores from older image backups I have made, to try and isolate the problem. I ruled out the above mentioned software I installed recently and eventually I narrowed the problem down to Avast being the only probable cause.

To cut a further long story short, I reluctantly removed Avast Home Free edition from the laptop and installed AntiVir to see if it would resolve the problem. So far, I have not had a repeat of the windows freeze problem in over a week.

I later discovered Avast has Troubleshooting menu features which I could have used to investigate the problem.

I am still running Avast on the Dell desktop but have decided to tick the check box for ‘Delay loading of Avast! services after other system services’.

I’ve used Avast on previous computers since 2004 but this is the first time I’ve encountered a problem which I believe is down to Avast v4.8.1335

8

I have the exact same problem as the op. But I built a new computer, installed Win XP SP2, then avast, then SP3. Avast hangs the computer randomly (maybe four times a row, maybe every other time etc) on XP startup so that the desktop shows and the blue A icon ball has a red circle with line though it. I can move the mouse but cant open task manager or do anything. If I hit the mouse buttons a few times the mouse freezes too and I have to hit the hard reset button. If I uninstall avast, the computer boots fine every time and I can play any game for as long as I want, surf the web or watch videos. During successful startups when avast doesnt hang, everything works great for as long as I do not reboot.

I’ve used Avast successfully for years and have gotten all my friends and associates to use it too with no problems. I’ve only seen this same sort of startup hang problem with some old Avast version that was then fixed soon after by a patch. I’ve reluctantly installed AVG until I can find the solution to this.

I tried delaying the startup, disabling self-protection and some of the other options available, they do not help.

Here’s the setup:

WinXP SP3 ENG PRO 32bit
Latest avast home free with all updates.
IE8 and ALL Windows Update updates.
AMD Phenom II X3 710
Asrock M3A780GXH motherboard
WD Blue 640GB SATAII
4GB of DDR3 1333Mhz RAM (512MB for IGP)

Thanks for your help!

9

What is your previous antivirus?

10

Sorry, I meant it was a clean install to a new computer and hdd, avast was the first antivirus to go in. Maybe it was a mistake to install avast before SP3. I tried uninstalling avast and reinstalling but that didnt help, didnt try manual uninstall tool yet.

Thanks

11

Was there any solution to this ?
I’m getting exactly the same thing. Only happens occasionally, maybe once or twice a week, which makes it all the more strange. I’ve eliminated all other start up programmes(quite relieved to find this thread as I thought i might have a hardware problem). Powering off the PC solves it but its becoming irritating. Reluctant to uninstall Avast as its such a good programme but may have to. I’m running XP SP3. thanks.

12

Which was your previous antivirus? How did you remove it?
Any other security program that could interfere?

13

I have had other secuirty software on there, but that was uninstalled (properly) years ago. I’ve been using Avast since then without problem so don’t think thats the issue. I’m also using Comodo firewall but I tried unistalling that and using Windows firewall but still got the same problem.

It was mentioned earlier in the thread that it happened around the time of upgrade to IE8, Think this was around the time it started happening to me (I do have Internet Exporer in my Start Up folder). Coincidence ?

Currently trying the ‘delay loading of avast services after other system service’ to see if that helps, will let you know.

14

I don’t know if this might be relevant or not?

http://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=50459.0

Have any of you guys with Avast! start-up problems read this thread and tried the experiment it mentions? I have still had not a squeak out of Alwil on this subject, or indeed anyone at all.

15

Hmmm… Which is your default browser?

But I think this is unrelated to startups lag times.

16

Adding my two cents to this thread, running XP Pro no problem with avast! on two machines for over a year. Recently, PC slows down bad at startup and springs back after about a half hour. I checked the Event Log and their are plenty of Error entries as follows:

[b][i]"The avast! Web Scanner service failed to start due to the following error: 
The service did not respond to the start or control request in a timely fashion." [/i][/b]

I don’t remember doing anything to the PC when all this started and I am running the latest version of avast. I wonder if this isn’t part of the original Posters problems? I’d appreciate any thoughts on this one – Thanks.

17

Well its over a week since i enabled ‘delay loading of avast services after other system service’ and i haven’t had the hang at start up. So its looking like a start up issue. Maybe the new version of Avast will solve it, but its working at the moment so assume I’m safe to keep my settings this way ???

18

Hi :slight_smile:

Re : *
That’s a Coincidence :-
Coz…
I’ve been using Avast for approx 10 months now ( Laptop & Desktop )
Never had any problems before 8)
However!
This Morning…
I turned on my laptop - & - Avast’s blue ball showed up in the task bar with a small circle with a red slash through it :o
Luckily!
The small red circle disappeared within approx 2 seconds - & - Avast’s blue ball returned to normal again.

One Other Thing!
About 5 minutes after my laptop had booted up…
I got that Avast News thing - Asking me did I want to watch a video ::slight_smile:

Must Be Half Asleep Today :frowning:
I’ve just noticed that this thread was started in April :-[